The Decline (Demise?) of Christianity?
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Hinduraksha
Feb 16, 2008, 3:53:14 AM2/16/08
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January 03, 2006
The Decline (Demise?) of Christianity?
Sightings 1/2/06
Predictions and Predicaments
-- Martin E. Marty
Predicting Religion is a book comprising papers by sociologists of religion who were asked to predict "Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures." Grace Davie, Paul Heelas, and Linda Woodhead edited chapters, many of them growing out of a 2001 conference. I finally had a chance to read the book during a quiet week, late enough in the game that the outcome of some of the predictions might be testable already! The notable authors disagree with each other as to whether we will see more secular or more religious, more Christian or more other-than-Christian futures in various places.
Europeans are bemused when they confront the many evidences of "salvational" Christian vitality in the U.S. -- and U.S. citizens, upon visiting Europe, come back with reports of empty chapels and cathedrals, casual participation by the few, and indifference and even disdain for faith communities.
When I read about or visit Europe, I come back to reality with this question: Can it happen here? Christian decline in Britain was a long, slow process, followed by sudden downturns. I used to teach about Irish Catholic history and about times when the seminary at Maynooth had many hundreds of seminarians. Today almost none graduate and proceed to ordination. (Closer to home, visitors to Quebec used to find full churches and huge outdoor festivals. Now decline is precipitous.) Why the European fate? Some blame tired and corrupt establishments, clerical sexual scandals, or new prosperity and materialism in Ireland as distractions. But why does consumerism boost American religious institutions -- and more? To the point:
Steve Bruce writes on "The Demise [not decline] of Christianity in Britain." Church attendance saw decline to 8 percent by 1999; in the 1980s the Church of England lost one-fourth of its attenders. The over-65 set makes up about one-fifth of Anglican attendance figures, and other churches run toward 40 percent. Membership? About 10 percent remain "members." In 1900, half of British kids were in Sunday school; now it is less than 4 percent. And in 1900 there were 45,400 clerics but, while population has since doubled, clerical numbers have fallen over 25 percent. Beliefs? Most serious decline is in "belief in a personal God and belief in Jesus as the Son of God." Politics: very little, very residual influence. Indifference reigns.
Liberal Christians used to trade on those persons shaped by intense religion but who rejected much of it as they grew. Today there is too little intensity left for adults to use to help shape the young. Bruce predicts: 1) "The church form of religion cannot return"; 2) "The sect form ... will decline slowly"; 3) "The cultic religion of New Age Spirituality will become ever more diffuse and ever less significant"; 4) "Three decades from now, Christianity in Britain will have largely disappeared." If help is to come, it has to be of a trickle-up sort, in which vitalities of sub-Saharan, Latin American, and Asian Christianity "go north." The Christianity that "went south" prospers, and selectively influences Christianity "up north." Were this weekly electronic op-ed based in Europe, Sightings would have to be called Squintings. Are the predictors using the wrong spectacles, or is their vision clear? Again, regarding demise: Can it happen here?
Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.
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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Sanatan Dharma <hindur...@gmail.com> wrote:
Predictions and Predicaments
-- Martin E. Marty
Predicting Religion is a book comprising papers by sociologists of religion who were asked to predict "Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures." Grace Davie, Paul Heelas, and Linda Woodhead edited chapters, many of them growing out of a 2001 conference. I finally had a chance to read the book during a quiet week, late enough in the game that the outcome of some of the predictions might be testable already! The notable authors disagree with each other as to whether we will see more secular or more religious, more Christian or more other-than-Christian futures in various places.
Europeans are bemused when they confront the many evidences of "salvational" Christian vitality in the U.S. -- and U.S. citizens, upon visiting Europe, come back with reports of empty chapels and cathedrals, casual participation by the few, and indifference and even disdain for faith communities.
When I read about or visit Europe, I come back to reality with this question: Can it happen here? Christian decline in Britain was a long, slow process, followed by sudden downturns. I used to teach about Irish Catholic history and about times when the seminary at Maynooth had many hundreds of seminarians. Today almost none graduate and proceed to ordination. (Closer to home, visitors to Quebec used to find full churches and huge outdoor festivals. Now decline is precipitous.) Why the European fate? Some blame tired and corrupt establishments, clerical sexual scandals, or new prosperity and materialism in Ireland as distractions. But why does consumerism boost American religious institutions -- and more? To the point:
Steve Bruce writes on "The Demise [not decline] of Christianity in Britain." Church attendance saw decline to 8 percent by 1999; in the 1980s the Church of England lost one-fourth of its attenders. The over-65 set makes up about one-fifth of Anglican attendance figures, and other churches run toward 40 percent. Membership? About 10 percent remain "members." In 1900, half of British kids were in Sunday school; now it is less than 4 percent. And in 1900 there were 45,400 clerics but, while population has since doubled, clerical numbers have fallen over 25 percent. Beliefs? Most serious decline is in "belief in a personal God and belief in Jesus as the Son of God." Politics: very little, very residual influence. Indifference reigns.
Liberal Christians used to trade on those persons shaped by intense religion but who rejected much of it as they grew. Today there is too little intensity left for adults to use to help shape the young. Bruce predicts: 1) "The church form of religion cannot return"; 2) "The sect form ... will decline slowly"; 3) "The cultic religion of New Age Spirituality will become ever more diffuse and ever less significant"; 4) "Three decades from now, Christianity in Britain will have largely disappeared." If help is to come, it has to be of a trickle-up sort, in which vitalities of sub-Saharan, Latin American, and Asian Christianity "go north." The Christianity that "went south" prospers, and selectively influences Christianity "up north." Were this weekly electronic op-ed based in Europe, Sightings would have to be called Squintings. Are the predictors using the wrong spectacles, or is their vision clear? Again, regarding demise: Can it happen here?
Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.
----------
Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Sanatan Dharma <hindur...@gmail.com> wrote:
Unholy ways of Holy Missionaries
U. Mahesh Prabhu.Recently I happened to read Edward Gibbons 'Decline and Fall of Roman Empire'. In the book he makes observation on early Christians and their tactics for conversion. Here he quotes a Roman proconsul who wrote that Christians have a very effective method of getting noticed and portraying themselves as 'Victims' in order to advance their cause.
Whenever, a minute transgression or even an attempt is made to implement law against them they make such a fuss and in such a rowdy manner that one would think that a 'great injustice' had been committed to them. Christianity does not have a notable reputation for tolerance and respect for other religions. 'The Christian need to convert the entire world' has been an historical obsession that continues in major Christian fundamentalist groups even today, both Protestant and Catholic.
The Christian Missionary's failure to honor other religions, particularly non-biblical traditions, is well known, with Christians still denigrating the sophisticated yogic traditions of Asia as mere superstition, idolatry and polytheism. Christian missionaries have had a reputation for using methods to promote conversion that are not always honest, including employing military and political force during the colonial era.
Their targeting of the poor and illiterate for conversion shows that they don't like open debates in the light of the day. Yet Christians like to ignore such inconvenient facts while posing as peaceful people concerned with human welfare, not with conversion. They are surprised if members of other religion are suspicious of them, even if they look at these religions and condemn them as works of the Devil. They feel easily hurt and insulted should anyone question their motives.In the modern secular world, Christians along with Muslims, now demand conversion as a democratic right, even though their religion is authoritarian, and not democratic, accepting only one way, and not honoring pluralism in approaching the Divine. They offer no freedom of choice about the 'savior' or the book or the creed that can bring salvation and there is little tolerance for those who choose another way outside their faith. Europe had to reject the church and Christian dogma in order to become democratic over the past several centuries, considering this; Christian churches are the last people on earth who should be talking about 'democratic rights'. It is merely a smokescreen for promoting their own agendas, spreading their authoritarian and exclusivist beliefs, recklessly eliminating other cultures and religions along the way.Years before there were serial church bombings in South India. It proved that the charges made by Christian leaders against Hindu organizations for the bombings were unfounded, if not malicious. However instead of admitting their mistake Christian leaders and organizations started a propaganda campaign, again blaming the Hindu organizations for 'creating an atmosphere' that led to these crimes! The arrests in this regard, in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, had shown that Deendal Anjuman, a Muslim organization led by a Pakistani National was behind most of the bomb blasts and attacks on Christian groups in South India. The Christian response has been to ignore or deny the report, though it is quite well documented. For further details, I suggest you to, read 'Church Blasts: Truth and Propaganda' by S Y Seshagiri Rao.Christians in India, who exaggerate such minor incidents into a National or International anti-Hindu propaganda, somehow never speak of the fact that' Several dozen black American churches were burnt to the ground. Christian priests and ministers are also robbed, assaulted and sometimes killed in all Western countries. We should note that many more priests in America have been arrested for sexual molestation of children than have priests been assaulted in India. Should we use that to make conclusions about the nature of Christianity?Did you know the fact that Christians killed many more pagans, and thousands of pagan temples were destroyed throughout Europe? The great Greek (Neo Platonic) Academy in Alexandria was destroyed and its scholars like Hypatia killed by Cyril – 'Saint Cyril'. The number of Native Americans killed or forcibly converted by Catholics was also in the many millions, and yet the Catholics emphasize a few priests martyred by Native Americans as being the real victims. Such and more are stories of 'Christian Oppression'.Hinduism is a religion of openness. We appreciate all gods and deities. We have never said that we are the 'only way' like many of the Semitic faiths. But Christian missionaries have, instead, used it as a pretext to promote Christian superiority, not to reciprocate with honoring Hinduism and its sages and yogis. They say Christ must be great because Hindus honor him. They don't honor Hindu teachers in return. The hypocrisy of the whole thing is easy to see. It shows the condescending attitude towards Hindus, thinking that they can bully them or appeal to their tolerance by a feigned persecution. It wholly proves that Christians Missionaries are still promoting a medieval religion that will not honor other religions and is still seeking world domination by any means fair or foul. If we count the victims of Christian aggression on one side and the Christian themselves who have been victimized we will find that the victims of Christianity are overwhelming in the majority. While some Christians have apologized to African and Native American groups for such missionary misdeeds, the Hindus have so far not received any such apology, though they have suffered from the same methods. The reason is that the missionaries have not yet triumphed in India. The apology, like crocodile tears, comes only after the victim is dead.I would trust those missionaries only if they say that Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and other Indian religions are as good as Christianity. Let Christians say clearly that members of other religions will not go to hell but will gain immortality in the presence of God by following what is good in their own teachings.Writes David Frawley 'As a former Catholic I know in what little esteem the Church holds Hinduism and Buddhism with all their great sages and yogis. Christianity, like Islam, sees tolerance not as a virtue to be emulated but as a weakness to be exploited. Were Christians really to honor Hinduism as a valid religion all Hindu-Christian hostility could easily come to an end. As long as Christians hold that their alone is the True Faith and are working to convert the members of other religion in one way or another, they should not be surprised if members of other religions do not welcome their presence.' In his book 'The Missionary Ploy.'It is only a matter of time before Missionary Christianity is seen for what is imperialism in the name of God and Christ, the proverbial wolf in the sheep's clothing. It is a political, worldly movement with little spirituality in it. Unfortunately such Christians confuse the real Divine work, which is improving us through introspection, with the institutional work of imposing a single belief upon all humanity. This political view of religion has no place in global age of consciousness that is dawning in enlightened minds all over the world today. The quicker it comes to an end, the better it will be for all of humanity. http://www.blogs.ivarta.com/india-usa-blog-column65.htm
PERSECUTION INDUSTRY @ http://www.crusadewatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=697&Itemid=128INVADING THE SACRED @ http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/invading-the-sacred/
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Dharma Raksha http://www.hindurashtra.org/
Everyone said he is dead...but is he now BACK FROM THE DEAD http://www.missionnetaji.org/
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Before even Attacking know what you are fighting join===>http://groups.google.com/group/Hindurakshak
Dharma Raksha http://www.hindurashtra.org/
Everyone said he is dead...but is he now BACK FROM THE DEAD http://www.missionnetaji.org/
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